1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer-aided design of vehicles and, more specifically, to a method for designing a thermal management system of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicle design, and in particular automotive vehicle design, has advanced to a state in which computer-aided design techniques are frequently utilized to develop a new vehicle in a virtual environment. Computer-aided design is especially beneficial in optimizing the various systems incorporated within a vehicle, to maximize design and functional capabilities of the vehicle systems. One example of a vehicle system is a thermal management system, providing powertrain cooling and climate control. The powertrain cooling system maintains the temperature within an engine compartment of the vehicle. The climate control system maintains the temperature of an occupant compartment of the vehicle at a comfortable level by providing heating, cooling and ventilation.
One aspect of the design task for a vehicle system, such as the thermal management system, is to ensure that the system is spatially compatible with a particular environment. Another aspect of the design task is to ensure that the design complies with predetermined functional criteria, including performance and durability requirements. In the past, various methods have been utilized to determine whether a proposed design meets such predetermined parameters. For example, a proposed design may be analyzed in two dimensions, which requires many iterations of a drawing. A three-dimensional model may also be constructed to obtain a better perspective of the design. The three-dimensional model may further be subjected to testing to determine whether it complies with performance and durability criteria. This method is time consuming and expensive.
It is also known that design methods that are knowledge-based are being utilized to design a vehicle system. The knowledge-based design method provides advice to the user of the method based on the environment of the design application used. Advantageously, knowledge-based design techniques maximize the amount of knowledge utilized, while developing a new vehicle system in a minimal period of time. An example of a knowledge-based design technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,293 to Kaepp, entitled "Method For Optimizing The Design Of A Product Using Knowledge Based Engineering Techniques", the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
It is also known to use a computer-aided design technique to design a vehicle system. An example of a computer aided design technique is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/984,806, entitled "Method and System For Vehicle Design Using Occupant Reach Zones", the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Another example is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 09/356,576, entitled "Method For Designing A HVAC Air Handling Assembly For A Climate Control System," the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
While the above design techniques work well, they do not take into account the particular functional and comfort criteria associated with designing a thermal management system for a vehicle. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a method for designing a thermal management system for a vehicle using a computer aided design and engineering technique that optimizes thermal performance and maximizes passenger thermal comfort criteria.